How Star Wars Battlefront II Is Changing Loot Boxes Following The Beta

Electronic Arts and DICE will be changing the way loot boxes are acquired and utilized in Star Wars: Battlefront II ahead of its release on November 17th for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The update for the loot boxes has arrived after receiving very strong feedback from those who participated in the game's beta test who claimed that the feature was pay-to-win.

Over on the official EA web portal for Star Wars: Battlefront II there's a small blog post with four major bullet points about what sort of changes that DICE and EA are making to the game when it comes to the loot boxes.

The first major change that's being made to the Star Card loot box system is that the Epic Star Cards will no longer be available for purchase from the cash shop during launch. Those loot boxes or loot crates are now only available through the crafting mechanic. So it's still possible to buy a bunch of crafting parts from the cash shop and then craft an Epic Star Card, but you can't just outright buy it anymore.

Additionally, the Epic Star Cards will still be available to those on launch day of the game if you pre-ordered Star Wars: Battlefront II, or purchased the deluxe edition, or picked up the starter packs.

The next big change is that you can no longer access the highest tier Star Cards by simply buying them from the cash shop. DICE changed the format so that now you have to reach a certain rank in order to unlock certain tiered Star Cards. So while it's still possible to purchase a bunch of loot boxes and grind up the material and craft new Star Cards, they will be restricted in how powerful they are until you reach a certain rank.

Now one of the things that will be possible in Star Wars: Battlefront II is to build the highest and strongest possible Star Card for your rank, and then outfit the classes or characters with those cards when you head into battle. Once you use those cards to get strong and rank up, you can then purchase stronger cards from the shop using the random loot box system.

One other way that DICE is also changing up the system is by making it where higher tiered weapons will also be locked behind milestones. So you won't be able to simply pay for better weapons by purchasing a bunch of loot crates. You'll have to first play as the character class to unlock access to certain specific weapons. However, it will still be possible to unlock some weapons from the loot boxes.

Lastly, class-specific gear can only be unlocked by playing as that class and hitting those milestones. Playing as the specific classes will open up access to special class-specific loot boxes. From there you'll be able to purchase the loot boxes once you've gained access to them after an extended amount of time playing as those classes in Star Wars: Battlefront II.

Whether or not this will completely assuage fans remains to be seen, but EA and DICE did decide to act on the feedback that was made quite clear from gamers who participated in the beta.